The forming or wet section of a Fourdrinier consists mainly of the head box and the forming wire, or fabric. Its main purpose is to generate consistent slurry, or stock, for the forming wire. A breast roll, several foils, suction boxes and a couch roll commonly make up the rest of the forming section. The press section and dryer section follow the forming section to further remove water from the paper sheet. The paper pulp is deposited atop the forming wire or a forming fabric. The pulp is then dewatered to create a paper sheet.
Adjustable foils have been utilized previously for dewatering operations in Fourdrinier machines. For instance. U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,500 to Mejdell, incorporated by reference herein for all purposes, which discloses an angle adjustable foil for a paper making machine. In Mejdell, a rigid foil member is pivoted by a cam actuated adjustment mechanism to change the angle of the foil blade. This moves the foil blade in the cross-machine direction which opens gaps that allows stock that includes fibers, filler, and fines into the foil blade mechanism where internal componentry may become clogged and cease to operate properly. Additionally, when fibers, fines, and fillers are introduced into the mechanism it may create high spots and/or opposing low spots where the blade is in contact with some portions of a wire across the cross-machine direction and not in contact with other portions of the wire resulting in a loss of dewatering to the paper sheet in such areas, if fibers, fines, and fillers become trapped within the foil blade the range of motion, over time, may become impeded such that the foil blades may cease to adjust along a full range or even break or require maintenance to restore a range of motion. It would be attractive to have a foil blade that is not susceptible to contamination by material in stock such as fibers, fines, and/or fillers. It would be attractive to have a foil blade that is adjustable such that fibers, fines, and fillers, located within the foil blade do not affect adjustment of the foil blade. What is needed is a foil blade system that maintains a substantially level nature across the machine direction of a paper machine so that the foil blade provides consistent dewatering along an entire cross-machine direction of the paper machine.